Osama bin Laden and the Nuclear Bomb

The following comments from Osama bin Laden and his followers as well as from adversaries illustrate the determination of the Al-Qaeda movement to obtain a nuclear weapon, and their intentions should they indeed possess a nuclear bomb.

"Acquiring nuclear weapons for the defense of Moslems is a religious duty. If I have indeed acquired these weapons, then I thank Allah for enabling me to do so.”
-Osama bin Laden, in an interview with Time magazine conducted in 1998

"We have the right to kill 4 million Americans, two million of them children"
-Abu Gheith, Al-Qaeda spokesman

"If a bomb was dropped on them that would annihilate 10 million and burn their lands…this is permissible.”
-Sheikh Nasir bin Hamid al-Fahd, prominent Saudi cleric close to Al-Qaeda

"The real matter is the extinction of America. And, Allah willing, it will fall to the ground" keep in mind this prediction.”
-Mullah Omar, Taliban leader and ally of Osama bin Laden

"The threat environment is as bad as it was before September 11. It is serious. They have reconstituted. They are coming after us.”
-George Tenet, CIA Director

"CIA says Al-Qaeda ready to use nukes."
-Report in The Washington Times, June 4, 2003